Quality Dairy – St. Joseph Highway

If you would have told me two years ago one of the things I would miss most about Lansing was Quality Dairy, I would have called you crazy. From the outside, these stores look like the typical convenience store. Inside? Not much different…at least until you dive into their unique goodies.

For me, most Quality Dairy stops were Pepsi stops. The thing I really loved about QD is that there’s almost always one near where you are. I could actually plan a trip somewhere and know that I could stop for a 32 oz. pop on my way and not have to deal with the gas station hassle of everyone in front of you buying cigarettes and the clerk not knowing which package is which. It was almost always a quick in and out.

My second day of work in East Lansing ended pretty late. It was after 10:00 by the time I started heading back to my hotel. I thought about grabbing a pizza in East Lansing, but I was tired and not really wanting to deal with Friday night crowds in a college town, so I just drove. I didn’t want fast food again, but I really wanted a Pepsi.

I took the Creyts Road exit off I-496 to get back to my hotel on Saginaw Highway. Along the way, I came across a QD at Creyts Road and St. Joseph Highway. There were also a couple gas stations in the area, but just because I had started a mission to hit every QD (31 in all) I crossed traffic to see if I could find something to eat.

If you’re in a doughnut or ice cream mood, Quality Dairy is a good choice. They have some delicious fresh-baked (in Lansing) pastries and some great premium ice cream. I wasn’t in the mood for either. Some QD locations have pizza by the slice. It’s not great pizza, but at least it’s warm. This is not one of those locations.

I grabbed my Pepsi from the fountain machine which looks to be pretty new. Some of the older QD locations had some pretty sad-looking fountain drink machines. This was not one of those.

After that, I started looking around for food. All I could really find were cold meat sandwiches. I had picked up one of their sandwiches before and was pretty satisfied by it, so I grabbed a Triple Turkey Wedge.

Tonight’s “dinner” cost me a whopping four bucks. Hard to argue with that. I waited until I got back to the hotel to dig into the sandwich. It really isn’t much more than a truck stop sandwich, but instead of just two wedges, there were three. There was a slice of turkey wedged between a slice of yellow cheese and a slice of white cheese (no indication on the package what kind it was). I wasn’t super hungry due to a big lunch, but it was something before bed and I knew Saturday was going to be another day where I wouldn’t get a whole lot of time to eat.

Quality Dairy came through again. Like I said earlier, I know it’s wierd to miss a convenience store, but I’d really rather go to a place like this for a quick pop than a gas station. At least I still have a few more trips to Lansing to see if I can hunt down the other stores I wasn’t able to make it to when I lived there.

QD is a great place to go for a sweet craving. Their death by chocolate ice cream and mackinaw island fudge is super great, and their brownies, and doughnuts. wow. The coffee is not real good – they can do better there, but
all else is wonderful. The staff is very friendly.